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Good morning from chilly Warsaw where snow is falling as you read this. Tomorrow is International Day of Persons with Disabilities.

FRANÇOIS HOLLANDE WON’T SEEK RE-ELECTION: “The world, Europe, France have faced particularly serious challenges during my mandate. In these particularly challenging circumstances, I wanted to maintain national cohesion,” the French president said, in announcing his decision Thursday.

Hollande’s approval rating has dipped into single digits, and his withdrawal from the socialist primary opens the way for his prime minister Manuel Valls to run, without having to stab his boss in the back. The center-right François Fillon and the right-wing Marine Le Pen remain the two favorites to face-off in the election’s second round vote. POLITICO | Le Figaro | Le Monde | BBC

Reactions from the left and center-left: Valls said Hollande’s decision was “a difficult, mature, serious choice. It is the choice of a statesman.” Former Economy Minister Emmanuel Macron, who is also a candidate, said: “It’s a brave decision and dignified … I think it’s a decision he made with his conscience.”

STAT DU JOUR: The unemployment rate in the eurozone fell to 9.8 percent in October, the lowest rate since July 2009, the EU’s statistic agency Eurostat revealed Thursday.

**A message from Google: There’s nothing serious about the fun, addictive mobile game Best Fiends, which has been downloaded a million times. However, its developer, Finland’s Seriously, grew impressively fast thanks to Android.**

PARTY PEOPLE: The European Greens Party joins in the party congress fun today (Socialists and Liberals have also gathered). Forty-six national parties are assembling in Glasgow and First Minister of Scotland Nicola Sturgeon will deliver the keynote speech. Brexit, U.S. President-elect Trump and how to combat climate change top the agenda.

ALDE CONGRESS WRAP …

Europe’s liberals are celebrating their 40th anniversary in Warsaw, and their big stars will be on show, including Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte and the European Commissioners Margrethe Vestager and Cecilia Malmström.

Did you know? A Liberal does run a key EU institution: Werner Hoyer heads the European Investment Bank, which is now central to major EU policies like Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker’s Investment Plan.

Liberal mayors create front against populism: Liberal mayors across Europe are banding together to form a front against the populist tide that is sweeping Europe. Led by Bart Somers, mayor of the Belgian town Mechelen, more than 20 city leaders will adopt a manifesto today on protecting liberal cities (key words: openness, opportunity and livability) and building pressure for a new “bottom-up European Union,” according to a draft seen by POLITICO.

In an era of political mistrust, ALDE believes people still have faith in local government, and that should serve as the foundation for a fightback by Europe’s political center. “The biggest mistake is for centrist parties to start compromising with populism,” Somers said.

JUNCKER’S RACE TO SAVE THE ‘GRAND COALITION’: But the European Commission President has his work cut out for him, if he is to preserve the political pact after the departure of Parliament President Martin Schulz.

TRANSATLANTIC LEGISLATORS DIALOGUE: Joint statement from MEPs who traveled to the U.S. to visit with Congress this week.

GEORGIEVA ADDRESSES CONFLICT OF INTEREST CONCERNS: In a letter toIngeborg Grassle, chair of the Committee on Budgetary Control,Kristalina Georgieva states categorically why she believes the new arrangement for EU’s funding of the World Bank is a good, and conflict of interest-free, deal for the union.

UK — RICHMOND PARK BY-ELECTION DELIVERS UPSET LIB DEMS VICTORY: The Liberal Democrats overcame a huge Conservative majority to secure the southwest London seat of Richmond Park in a shock by-election win that is widely seen as a de facto verdict on Brexit.

ITALY AND AUSTRIA VOTE ON SUNDAY.

LATEST FROM ITALY …

Matteo Renzi is the new David Cameron: Italy’s prime minister called a vote to unite his party, secure his job and make his country a stronger pillar in EU. The opposite happened. Giulia Paravicini on the latest European leader to flirt with referendum disaster.

Berlusconi invokes visions of a dictatorship: Though his television stations are carrying pro-Yes coverage, former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has warned that the country could become a dictatorship if people vote in support of constitutional reform in Sunday’s referendum. If Renzi loses, Berlusconi says he will offer him a job as TV presenter for the Italian version of the Celebrity Survivors, L’Isola dei famosi.

Twitter-war: Bruegel has been monitoring competing hashtags in the run-up to the Italian referendum.

MEANWHILE IN AUSTRIA … Far-right candidate Norbert Hofer remains the slight favorite, after narrowly losing Austria’s original presidential election in May. An appeal from a Holocaust survivor to vote against Hofer has gone viral. Hofer’s right-wing Freedom Party “brings out the basest in people,” a 89-year-old Holocaust survivor said, urging people to vote for Hofer’s competitor.

BULGARIA — PRESIDENT-ELECT WANTS ROMANIAN-STYLE ANTI-CORRUPTION AGENCY: Rumen Radev, a former air force general set to become Bulgaria’s next president, wants to create a powerful anti-corruption agency, modeled on neighboring Romania’s Direcţia Naţională Anticorupţie, reports Novinite. He is scheduled to meet former justice minister, Monica Macovei, who set up the agency in 2004 and is now an ECR MEP. Macovei told Playbook that she will talk to “anyone, anywhere” who are serious about fighting corruption and instituting justice reform.

SWEDEN — 250 YEARS OF PRESS FREEDOM: Today is the 250th anniversary of the Swedish Freedom of the Press Act — the world’s first legislation on freedom of expression and freedom of information.

— Several organizations have come together to celebrate with an event paying tribute “to all women journalists who defy hate speech and threats.” Live Stream starts 1:30pm here.

GERMANY’S HILLARY CLINTON: Angela Merkel used to wear an aura of inevitability. Not anymore, report Janosch Delcker and Matthew Karnitschnig. The main problem Merkel faces is that, similar to Clinton, she has become a polarizing figure. As the anti-Merkel graffiti across Germany attest, resistance to her candidacy is building. The pro-Merkel camp, meanwhile, is confident but not quite impassioned.

UK — MIGRATION AT RECORD HIGH LEVEL: Net migration to Britain in the first six months of 2016 remained at a record high of 335,000 people, including 284,000 EU citizens coming to live in the U.K. However, it seems difficult to gauge any impact from Brexit.

WHAT CHINA IS READING ABOUT EUROPE: The People’s Daily — considered one of the mouthpieces of the Chinese government — ran an editorial calling the EU’s attitude toward international treaties “insincere,” warning Brussels that “observing international obligations without attached strings is the only right choice.” It was referring to the new trade policy on anti-dumping and anti-subsidy methodology the Commission proposed in November to unpick the puzzle of China’s claim to market economy status.

The third meeting of the EU−Georgia Association Council will take place today. The meeting will be chaired by EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini on behalf of the European Union. Georgia will be represented by its Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili. The press conference is at 11 a.m.

**Join us on December 8 for POLITICO’s “After Marrakech: How to turn the Paris Climate Deal into Reality?” event, part of the Energy Visions series, presented by Shell. Take part in the discussion on the outcomes of COP22, featuring Miguel Arias Cañete, European commissioner for climate action and energy; Geneviève Pons, director of WWF European policy office; Laszlo Varro, International Energy Agency’s chief economist; and Charles O. Holliday, chairman of Royal Dutch Shell plc and chairman of the Sustainable Energy for All administrative board. Hear also fresh insights from our experts and explore what this all means for energy and climate policies in 2017 and beyond. Information and RSVP.**

THE PLAYBOOK INTERVIEW— WITH GEORGIA’S PRIME MINISTER

POLITICO’s David M. Herszenhorn interviews Kvirikashvili, who wants his country to achieve visa-free travel access to the EU.

Why are you here this week?

“This is the first visit, the first foreign visit after the elections. And it is also symbolic that the first visit is to the European capital, underlining the importance of European integration as the strategic goal for Georgia.”

Is the EU living up to its commitments to Georgia, particularly given Georgia’s commitment to Western integration?

“If we speak about visa liberalization, yes … Still this issue has been somehow stuck between the European institutions. Visa liberalization has … enormous transformative power to drive the reform agenda forward and we hope very much that in the nearest … months, this issue will come to a successful end.”

Kvirikashvili also praised the benefits of Georgia’s “deep and comprehensive free trade area agreement” as “an incredible achievement … making Georgia a part of the European order even well before becoming a full member of the European family.”

What do you make of recent election results in Estonia, Moldova and Bulgaria? Do they reflect a shift toward Russia?

It’s too soon after the elections to judge whether these countries are actually turning toward Moscow, he said. “I think we need to just wait for next steps.”

There was similar speculation that when your party, Georgian Dream, first came to power in 2012, it was also a shift toward Russia.

“All these speculations about Georgian Dream not being as pro-Western as our predecessors are very far from reality … What is the difference? The biggest difference is we are more pragmatic [and are] trying to de-escalate tensions with Russia. And why are we doing that? To have enough stability in the region, first of all to stay consistent with the West, with the European Union and NATO, and of course to create enough stability to attract investments and grow the economy … Of course, we would like to have normal neighborly friendly relations with Russia, but only based on the respect of Georgia’s territorial integrity in the internationally-recognized borders.”

Still, Russia continues to occupy the Georgian territories of Abkhazia and South Ossetia (called as the Tskhinvali region in Georgian) and the border fence seems to keep moving further into Georgian territory?

“We see the signing of the different integration cooperation treaties virtually swallowing Abkhazia and Tskhinvali region in the Russian political, military, bureaucratic space … Of course this is a way to undermine stability in the region, definitely. But we will stay consistent with our pragmatic de-escalation policy because we understand there is no military solution to this conflict … It’s very complicated.”

DONALD TUSK’S COMMENTS FOLLOWING HIS MEETING WTIH KVIRIKASHVILI: Tusk thanked “Georgia for its continued contributions to EU crisis management operations, assisting us in advancing EU foreign and security policy objectives … Let me express my concern about the recent ratification of the so-called agreement between Russia and the Georgian breakaway region of Abkhazia on military cooperation … The EU will remain firm in its support of the territorial integrity of Georgia.”

Money men: The overlap between Trump’s Cabinet and the world of high finance: Washington Post. The return of a Goldman Sachs government, by POLITICO’s Ben White. And a story about how Trump has assembled the richest administration in modern American history, by Jim Tankersley and Ana Swanson, also in the Washington Post.

— Internet of Things and 5G Revolution in EU Services and Industry,I-Com Europe.

WEEKEND READS …

— ‘Where is the Brioche?’ Emily O’Reilly on the EU’s Marie-Antoinette Moment in Euractiv.

— The reinvention of radical protest: life on the frontline of the Aids epidemic: Long read in the Guardian by David France on how Act Up redrew the blueprint for activism in a media-saturated world, providing inspiration for groups such as Black Lives Matter and pro-democracy activists in Moscow.

— After CETA, a more democratic trade policy:An in-house op-ed by David Kleimann and Gesa Kübek.

— Podcast of the weekend: POLITICO alum Maggie Haberman, now at the New York Times, talks about covering Trump and the tabloid mindset. In POLITICO’s Off Message.

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